What is The Working Mind (TWM)?

The Working Mind program is a education based workplace mental health and wellness program. Designed to address and promote mental health and reduce the stigma of mental illness in a workplace setting. The Working Mind Program, developed by clinicians and peers, is based on scientific research and best-practices.

The Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association is the first truck transportation association in Canada to provide qualified trainers for this exciting mental wellness program in the truck transportation industry. NSTSA is pleased to announce training programs for The Working Mind program for all truck transportation companies in Nova Scotia. Courses are offered on a cost recovery basis. See below for complete details of the program. We also offer in house training for companies and their staff, please contact us for more details. Check our training calender for upcoming classes.

• A focus on dispelling the myths of mental health problems and mental illnesses, aiming to reduce associated stigma.• An overview of the Mental Health Continuum Model.• Self-assessment of one’s own mental health along the continuum.• Strategies one can apply at each point along the continuum.

The managers’ version includes additional course content:

• Workplace accommodations and return to work.• How to observe changes in employees along the continuum.• Appropriate actions to take.• How to communicate with employees about mental health illness in a workplace context.

Goals

• To support the mental health and well-being of employees.• To enable the full productivity of employees.• To ensure the workplace is respectful and inclusive of all employees, including those with mental health problems and mental illness.• To encourage employees to seek help for mental health problems and mental illness.

Objectives

• To examine the effects of mental health concerns and mental illness in the workplace.• To help staff identify indicators of declining and poor mental health in themselves and others.• To introduce the concept of Mental Health Continuum Model.• To review employees’, managers’, and employers’ mental health rights and responsibilities.• To provide strategies staff can use to maintain good mental health.

Allows individuals to identify indicators of declining or pool mental health in themselves, and others (without diagnostic labels and their associated stigma).

Stresses that individuals can move along the continuum; if one ends up in the red “ill” phase, he or she can move back towards the green “healthy phase”.

Teaches the appropriate action one can take for themselves and for others at each point along the continuum.

Some of the strategies contained in the program are Cognitive Behaviour Theory-based techniques that help individuals cope with stress and improve their mental health. They include positive self-talk, visualization, diaphragmatic breathing, and proper goal setting.

Research indicates that contact-based education is one of the best ways of reducing stigma. The Working Mind includes custom videos of people with mental illnesses describing some of their experiences with mental illness and stigma, as well as those who supported them and their journey to recovery.